The invention relates to a flow rate regulator having a housing that has at least one regulator annular channel in which there is provided an annular throttle body comprised of elastic material, which throttle body delimits a control gap between itself and a channel wall which bears a regulating profiling, the passage cross section of which control gap can be varied by the throttle body that deforms under the pressure difference that is generated as flow passes through, and having at least one valve that has a valve body which, under the pressure of the medium flowing through, moves from an open position into a closed position counter to a restoring force, in which closed position the valve body closes off at least one valve opening.
FR 1 175 236 A has already disclosed a flow rate regulator which, by way of its disk-shaped regulator housing, can be interconnected between two adjacent line sections of a pipeline. For this purpose, the already-known flow regulator has multiple flow openings, of which at least one flow opening has a constant clear cross section, whereas, in at least one other flow opening, there is provided a regulating body which borders the flow cross section and which is comprised of elastic material and which constricts to an increasing extent under the pressure of the fluid flowing through. Whereas the flow rate through the flow openings that have a constant cross section increases with rising pressure, the flow rate through the flow openings that have the elastic regulating bodies falls with rising pressure of the fluid flowing through, the overall result being a flow rate which initially rises steeply with rising pressure and which, with further rising pressure, subsequently reaches a virtually constant maximum value. This already-known flow rate regulator however does not have any valves which, under the pressure of the fluid flowing through, could move from an open position into any closed position counter to a restoring force.
WO 2004/003673 A1 has already disclosed a flow rate regulator which, in its regulator housing, has two regulator units arranged concentrically with respect to one another, of which each regulator unit has, in an encircling passage channel, a control pin or regulating core which is engaged around in each case by an annular throttle body comprised of elastic material, which throttle body delimits between itself and the control pin and/or the housing inner circumference a control gap whose passage cross section can be varied by the throttle body that deforms under the pressure difference that is generated as flow passes through. Here, an inner regulator unit is arranged in the control pin or regulating core of the second outer regulator unit. While even high throughputs in liters per unit of time can be regulated by means of the outer, relatively large regulator unit, fine-tuning of the amount of water flowing through it is possible with the relatively small inner regulator unit. None of the substantially structurally identical regulator units provided in the already-known flow rate regulator as per WO 2004/003673 A1 constitutes a valve which, under the pressure of the water flowing through, could be moved between an open position and a closed position.
A flow rate regulator of the type mentioned in the introduction is already known from FIG. 6 of DE-A 21 31 117. The already-known flow rate regulator has a regulator housing that has a regulator annular channel in which there is provided an annular throttle body comprised of elastic material, which throttle body delimits a control gap between itself and the inner channel wall which bears a regulating profiling, the passage cross section of which control gap can be varied by the throttle body that deforms under the pressure difference that is generated as flow passes through. With increasing pressure, the throttle body, which is comprised of elastic material, deforms into the regulating profiling such that the passage cross section of the control gap becomes increasingly constricted, such that the maximum flow rate is limited to a fixed value in a manner independent of pressure. In the center, bordered by the regulator annular channel, of the regulator housing there is provided an inflow valve that has a valve body which, under the pressure of the medium flowing through, moves in an axial direction from an open position into a closed position counter to a restoring force, in which closed position the valve body closes off at least one valve opening. The additional inflow valve has the task of creating an additional liquid passage in the case of low connection pressure, which liquid passage, in the case of rising pressure, ensures a rapid increase in flow rate up to the desired maximum value.
Since the axial actuation movement of the valve body provided in the inflow valve requires a certain installation height, the already-known flow rate regulator is relatively tall. In order that the valve opening of the inflow valve provided in the center of the regulator housing has an adequately large flow cross section, the regulator housing has a correspondingly large housing cross section. The flow rate regulator already known from DE-A 21 31 117 is therefore relatively voluminous and cannot be used under restricted space conditions, for example in the water outlet of a slim sanitary outlet fitting. Furthermore, the already-known flow rate regulator is relatively complex and cumbersome to manufacture.